Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1887-07-01

ana Qere are TWO or three potatoes
which were left from supper, TITS all
I have to offer YOU @@..='
She was interrupted by childish
voice, which came from behind q plank
partition forming kind of dark clos
ct in one of the corners OF the place.
''Good night!' added La Feuriotte,
''Tll be looking after the little one,
who's getting scared. Try to sleep
WE'LL"
She took the lamp and sought the
adjoining closet, leaving the Bretonne
in the dark.
The later had stretched herself on
the sweet heather. After eating her
frugal meal, she tried to close hereyes,
| but sleep would not come to their
| tired lids. Through the partition
boards she heard La Fleuriotte chat
ting In a low voice to her little one,
who had been woke by the arrival OF
the stranger and would not go to
sleep again. La Fleuriotte fondled
| and coaxed and kissed her darling
! with endearing words, the artless ex-
preston of which moved the poor
| Bretonne in an unwonted manner.
1t summoned up a confused maternal
| instinct still slumbering in the breast
| OF one who had been condemned for
sitting her newborn babe She was
alive to the fact that ii things chad
not turned out badly" her own little
one would now be about as old as
! that little girl.
A motherly. yearning rose in her
beating heart. Her feelings, so long
! chilled, were reused to their inmost
depths by this haunting thought and
the sound OF the sweet childish voice;
melting softness spread througout
her being, and she had a good mind to
give way to tears.
"Now, my dArling," said La Fleu-
riotte, "go to sleep like g good girl,
and il you do, I'll take you to-nlor-
row, to Sainte GATHERINGS Fair.'
"Sainte Catherine is the festival for
little girls, isn't it, mammal"
Eyes, my dear"
els it true that on that day Sainte
Catherine brings pretty toys to chi!
dren?"
Eyes, sometimes"
''Why, then, doesn't she ever bring
some to me, mammal
"Because we live so far away, and
then again we are too poor"
'"Then, she only brings toys to the
rich, does she? Why? / should like
to have some too"
"Well, some day, if you are a. good
girl and go to sleep, she may perhaps
bring you some also.''
ooh, then III go to sleep right off,
SO she may bring me some to-mor.
row.
A stiffness followed. Then the soft,
gentle breathing Of both mother and
child showed that they had folio we'd
asleep together.
But the Bretonne could not close
her eyes. A feeling at once indignant
and tender clutched her at the heart,
and more than ever before at any
time OF her life she thought OF the de-
fenceless, harmless little creature she
had ruthlessly strangled.
This dreadful, renorseful feeling
lasted until the first streak OF dawn
At break OF day LaFleuriotte and her
child were still locked in each others
arms.
The Bretonne noiselessly crept out
of the hovel, and making the best Of
her way back to Auberive, slackened
her stepsonly when she reached the
first houses of the small place. She
slowly walked up the only street in the
village, intently gazing at the sign
boards over each shop.
At last one of these signs arrested
her attention. She knocked at the
shutters and the door was opened.
It was one Of those little country
stores where, besides a variety OF
haberdashery wares, cheap second
hand toys may be bought, card board
| dolls, Noah's arks, and baa-lambs.
The amaZement OF the woman who
kept the store was unboun0ed when
she saw the Bretonne buy up and pay
for the whole stock.
The Bretonne was proceeding with
ajoyful heart on her way back to the
howell when a heavy-gloved hand fell
upon her shoulder. She started. and,
on turning round, shuddere to find
herself face to face with a. corporal
of gendarmes.
The wretched woman had forgotten
that all liberated convicts were forbid
den to remain in the precincts of tho
Central House of Detention.
'Instead OF vagabondizing round
here, you ought to have already
reached Langres," said the military
man in a gru1f voice. "Colne, be off,
She wanted to explain, but it was OF
no use. A cart was put into requisi-
ton; she had to get up into it, and
away went the horses, under escort Of
one Of the gendarmes.
The cart jolted mercilessly along the
frozen road. Thepoor Bretonne, with
a half broken heart, clutched her little
parcel OF play things in her benumbed
fingers. Soon, at a turn in the road,
she discovered the path which entered
the wood.
Her heart leaped and she besought
the gendarme to stop for q moment.
She had a commission, she said, for
La Fleuriotte, a woman who lived
there, close by. She besought with
such an earnestness of manner and
feeling that the gendarme, who after
all was good~natured fellow, allowed
himself to be swayed by her entreaties.
| The cart was stopped, the horse
was tied to q tree, the gendarme and
his prisoner got down, and they went
up the path that led to the hovel in
the wood.
La Fleuriotte was busy chopping
wood in front of her door When she
looked up and caught sight of the
woman whom she had housed on the
previous evening in the hands of a
gendarme she stood with her mouth
open like one petrifed.
"Hush!' calculated the Bretonne,
as she put her finger to her lips. "Is
the little one still asleep?"
"Yes; but
."Carry these toys softly to her bed